Spiritual Sunday #1

 How does the Holy Ghost Help Me Learn?

New weekly post...I hope. =)  With the changes to the Sunday School curriculum for the youth I am going to work on keeping better notes during the week while I study the topics and prepare.  My new class is the 12-13 year olds and my new teaching partner is also a returned missionary.  She's great. 

This month's topic is The Godhead.  Our focus is to teach them how to be better learners and better teachers.  So I felt like this topic was the most important one to learn first to help us all be better learners through the rest of the year.

As I thought about this topic over the last week and wondered what would be most important for my class to learn I had a lot of different thoughts.  But, in true Come Follow Me fashion, my lesson didn't include any of the amazing ideas I thought I had come up with earlier in the week.  It ended up being much simpler.

We spent the majority of the lesson talking about St. John 16:13 in the New Testament:

"...when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak; and he will shew you things to come."

It taught us 3 important things about how the Holy Ghost will help us learn:

                1.  He will guide us to truth.

                2.  He will speak what he hears...(more on that in a minute)

                3.  He will show us things.

 

Guides us to truth:

The mission of the Holy Ghost is to testify of the Savior and his divine mission.  In the process, or part of the process, he helps us recognize truth, because truth is all interconnected with the Savior's teachings and divine purpose.   When we want to learn more about the gospel of Jesus Christ and make an effort to study the scriptures, or words of the prophets, the Holy Ghost has an opportunity to recognize truth when we find it and guide us to where we can find what we need to know.  For example, occasionally when I am reading the scriptures I am led away from where I started and end up somewhere completely different, but with the information or answers I was looking for. 

So we learned today that when we are sincerely looking for truth, answers to our questions, inspiration or solace, the Holy Ghost will guide us as we prayerfully search the scriptures.

Speaks what he hears:

From this part of the scripture we learned two different things.  First, that as we hear truth spoken/sung, read it, or see it in the actions of others, the Holy Ghost will speak to us in a way that helps us recognize that it is true, important and/or good.  He speaks to everyone in different ways, but most often the spirit is something we feel more than we hear.

Second, as we study the scriptures, teachings of the prophets, learn hymns, etc. the spirit is able to increase its vocabulary with us.  The more we learn and know, knowledge that stays in our hearts and minds, the more ways the spirit has to speak to us and guide us later on.  So he not only helps us recognize truth as we hear it, but he helps us remember it so that when we need answers in the future those thoughts come back to our minds. 

Although I've had many experiences with both instances, I really appreciate the instantaneous answers that comes when the things I've learned come back to me at just the moment I need it.  Whether it's when I am frightened and looking for safety, or wanting to share peace with someone else, or need direction on what I'm doing, it's always there for me, just as I heard it or learned it the first time. 

Shows us things:

I forget how exciting the gospel is.  The moment you start studying it the principles fall so easily into place.  The more you study and learn the bigger the picture gets and the connections between things become so clear.  That's what the Holy Ghost does for us.  He helps hidden things become visible, he helps us see it in different ways so that we can better understand, he helps our faith grow so that it lights the pathway in front of us. 

The kids had some great examples of these different principles, and we learned an important promise from 1 Nephi 10:19 in the Book of Mormon that:

"...he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost, as well in these times as in times of old, and as well in times of old as in times to come; wherefore the course of the Lord is one eternal round."

The class said diligently means that we don't give up looking, and that we try hard to find it.  So God promises us that if we diligently look for truth, for answers, for hope, the Holy Ghost will help us find it, and if we continue to learn and seek more he'll make the mysteries visible to us.

This week the class is going to write down a time they felt the spirit, and as they were leaving one of the girl's asked me if there was a time the spirit spoke to me but I didn't know it or recognize it until later. It's only fair for the teachers to have homework too. Guess we'll see how we all did next week.

I love the feeling of learning or understanding something new about the gospel, and especially when I see how it strengthens my testimony and faith in the Savior.  Hope you get used to hearing about, because what do I know?

**For more inspiration on this topic read this amazing talk, Receiving by the Spirit.